Chinese YouTube 56.com Returns To Living

Either 56.com cleared up its “system maintenance” issue or the Chinese government decided not to crush it completely. As promised just yesterday, the site is back online, following a 5-week hiatus.

What’s still unavailable — a clear answer from management or its western investors on why it was down for so long. We also don’t have an idea if the content or any other part of the site has had a significant overhaul, though we suspect it has.

Nevertheless, that it’s back at all is great news for Disney’s Steamboat Ventures, Susquehanna International Group, Hikari Private Equity, Sequoia China, Adobe Systems and CID Group, which have poured $30 million into the company.

Lingering questions: just how much traffic–once the second-largest UGC site in China–did the site lose and can it ever get it back? Will 56.com get a video licence from the Chinese government, like competitor Youku earlier this week?